Mount Chomolangma National Park

Like an enormous pyramid, Mount Chomolangma (Mount Everest), the highest peak on earth, loftily stands high above its surrounding peaks of the Himalayas along the border between China and Nepal. With the culminating peak Mount Chomolangma soaring to an altitude of 8,848 meters at the center of the park, it reigns as one of the highest national parks in the world; and its vast expanse of coverage (3,391,022 hectares) makes it the second largest national park in China at present, just smaller in area than The Arjin Mountains National Park in Xinjiang that covers an area of 4,500,000 hectares. Its flanks are bristled with massive towering snow-clad peaks, dozens of which reach a height of more than 7,000 meters in elevation, noteworthily The Luozi Peak (8,507 meters) to its south, The Makalou Peak (8,470 meters) to its east, The Zhuoauyou Peak (8,153 meters) and The Xixiabangma Peak (8,027 meters) to its west are the world's high peaks exceeding 8,000 meters above sea level. Mount Chomolangma is the overwhelming giant of the Himalayas and completely dominates the wilderness. Forbidding and inspiring, its distinctive summit rising high against the sky offers an incredibly awful and breathtaking sight, although the summit is scarce of oxygen in the thin air and devoid of life.

Topographically, the park is composed of the Himalayan ranges and a vast expanse of wide valleys and basins. Like much of the other parts of the Himalayas, Mount Chomolangma was uplifted millions of years ago when the mountain building movements in the earth's crust caused upheavals in Asia and created the high peaks here. Constant erosion of wind, rainfall, snow and ice modeled and chiseled out the peaks to their current contours. Intense and powerful mountain glaciations of the past long periods further sculpted and carved the mountains into an array of craggy peaks and deep valleys. During a long period of tremendous jolts, the land to the south of the park rose upward and the mountain ranges of over 8,000 meters above sea level were created. Snow-covered peaks glistening majestically against the azure sky in warm seasons are a common sight here. At the same time, the fault to the north of the park dropped downward, and the wide valleys and the broad basins were formed. These geological changes resulted in the dramatic contrast in elevations within the park.

The great disparity in elevations gives rise to a concentrated and long branches of the Yaluzangbu River, the largest river in the northern Tibet, where the massive rivers rise upward with the rise of the Himalayas and carve downward, creating the majestic deep valleys. The north, therefore, is an area of luxuriant vegetation and sparkling waters. Rivers meander through the basins and valleys, and are bordered by verdant fields, marshes and grasslands, on which the local people graze their flocks of cattle and sheep.

Mount Chomolangma is always cloaked with snow or obscured by clouds during the summertimes. During the cold periods, with the gale winds and the extremely low temperatures, snow is compacted into ice that forms glaciers. The Himalayas therefore are covered with large sheets of snow and ice, forming an enormous center of modern active glaciers. Mount Chomolangma, a realm of eternal ice and snow, along with its surrounding towering peaks have the largest concentration of glaciers. Its summit and its upper slopes are mantled with glistening white active glaciers, creating the park's major appeal. Several large glaciers radiate from its summit, creep downslope, lace the mountain slopes and occupy the rugged valleys around it. Rongbu Glacier, the largest of the several large glaciers, extends 22.2 kilometers, with 1.4 kilometers of average glacier tongue, covering an area of 86.89 square kilometers. Most of the glaciers stream from a height of 5,500-6,000 meters down to 5,000-5,250 meters.

The massive glaciers in the Mount Chomolangma area do a good job in scouring the mountain-sides, scooping out cirques at canyon heads, gouging out deep V-shaped trough valleys and polishing valley bottoms, forming particular terrain everywhere. Mount Chomolangma itself is a pyramid-like mount that is eroded and honed by glaciers. Glacial lakes and moraine tablelands are scattered in the south. Scientific survey indicates that during the Quaternary Period, at least 4 glaciations had occurred and created the glacial topography in the Himalayas.The topography of massive seracs at 5,100-5,400 meters above sea level show diverse-shaped glaciers, such as seracs, ice tables, icicles, ice bridges, ice sprouts, ice walls and ice caves, which are one of the notable enticements in the park.